ARENA — The Unquiet Sky (review)

The album concept is from a short horror story by Mr. James called "Casting the Runes". The atmosphere of this film is illustrated in the opening song. If the last Arena's album didn't convince all critics, this one could bring back some of those who didn't like the direct approach of this last album. This new album is not radically different from the others, but you can hear how much Clive Nolan's work on keyboards and piano has succeed to create some new sounds which give to the music a more atmospheric sound. You just have to listen to the track "Returning the Curse" to hear some nice atmospheric sounds from the keys that could find similarity with the band IQ. Also on this song, it's easy to get hooked on the chorus : "You look at me, but you failed to see me". Usually I am not the biggest fan of ballads, but here, the two ballads "How did it come to this" and "Oblivious to the Night" have enough quality to keep my attention throughout the album. The confident voice of Paul Manzi must help me enjoy those songs, but also the nice melody. There is also some semi-ballad type of songs that are not as captivating as most of the songs, but we get enough strong compositions to make for it. I was under the impression on the last song of the album "Traveller Beware", the way the song was building up, that it was going to be a epic like they did in the past, but this time the band keep their songs not too long. I don't want to finish this review without talking about the but the guitar work of John Mitchell who's sensible touch is tangible through this album .